Public safety is a point of ever-increasing importance in the society we live in. In this context, control of use of firearms and their ammunitions is an indispensable aid, which though highly desirable, is difficult to implement. Positive establishment of ammunition origin, once made feasible, would certainly aid on the work of investigators, remarkably improving the performance of the agencies responsible for keeping public safety. That would require the availability of a process for indelible marking of the ammunition manufactured with elements that allow its identification.
The purpose of the present invention is the positive identification of ammunition from retrieval and inspection of one of its engraved components, even after the ammunition is spent.
In the present document, ammunition is defined as the complete set of cartridge case, projectile, propellant and primer, with all these elements assembled such as to form a single body, being the terms ammunition and cartridge deemed synonymous.
Cartridge case is herein defined as the cylindrical, conical or bottle-shaped capsule of the cartridge, in which are assembled the primer use and the projectile, containing also he propellant (typically smokeless powder). The cartridge case features an element named extractor groove collar or cannelure, typically placed in the area near the case base, which purpose is to aid in the process of empty case extraction after the cartridge is fired.